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| Date Reviewed: 01/14/2005 |
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Strengths: 24X Zoom, zoom mic, price, 3 hr battery, easy controls, size/weight, remote control,
Weaknesses: low light resolution, video editing software not provided
Summary: Its a pretty good deal for amateurs at a reasonable price. I did an extensive research, and finally settled with this camcorder. When you try to optimize the different functions/variables a camcorder should have, PV GS15 stands out on top. Its easy to use, performance is good, and the cost is excellent ! What else do you need?
Definitely recommended.
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| Date Reviewed: 03/19/2005 |
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Strengths: Photosnap, remote control (slow motion), light enough to control with one hand...practically has everything you would ever need in a camera
Weaknesses: Firewire cable is not included...battery release on charger is kind of small
Summary: I love this camera. With the remote, i can play the video in slow motion and get pictures off of it that way. I have horses, so i love taking videos of them and this camera was great. It zooms in/out at my speed and even at far distances, the video comes out clear.
Only problems i have is the battery release is small so that is kind of hard, but i can live with it. Its also kind of weird putting the battery in the charger and camera at first, but once you figure it out, its not that hard.
The camera did not come with a firwire cable (which is needed to get the videos onto a computer), so that has to be purchased. Also, if your computer does not come with a firewire outlet, that also needs to be purchased (i bought mine at Circuit City and the cable with it did not cost to much).
It really is worth the money and dont regret buying it at all.
100% of People (4/4) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 02/28/2005 |
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 For the novice it is probably a fairly decent valu ... Strengths: Light weight and easy to carry. Good zoom ability although zooms very quickly and takes some practice for smooth performance.
Weaknesses: Definitely not good indoors with minimum lighting. The built-in light helps. No software for downloading into computer. Had trouble with the review mechanism.
Summary: For the novice it is probably a fairly decent value. I wish I had paid more and tried the mini-dvd. I think it would be easier for editing on the computer.
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| Date Reviewed: 01/27/2005 |
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Strengths: optical zoom, easy to use
Weaknesses: color night view function is useless
Summary: Color night view functrion is usefull if you want to film the moon and the stars. If you try to film something that is moving, thats not gonna work.
Also i have a problem copying the video to my computer. I connect my camera to computer via provided USB cable and i can view pictures with DV studio software, but how do i copy video to my computer? Any ideas?
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| Date Reviewed: 01/14/2005 |
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Strengths: Very easy to use and light weight. Has some cool builtin effects and the zoom and backlight or gamma correction mode are excellent! The 16:9 film mode adds to the movies.
Weaknesses: none that I can think of.
Summary: If you're looking for a cam to mess around with and shoot home movies this is excellent! The 16:9 film mode adds to the movies, makes them seem more professional.
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| Date Reviewed: 09/25/2004 |
- ramanohar
from VA
- Member Since:
Jun 2004
View Member's:
Reviews
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Strengths: Very good optical zoom. Small size and reasonable price. Takes SD card for photos unlike proprietary memory stick that Sony uses.
Weaknesses: Button to manually adjust exposure outside of LCD screen enclosure would have been nice.
Summary: Many of the compact models out there compromise on the optical zoom. They just have about 10x zoom. Unlike this series of Panasonic which have zoom in the range of 20 to 24, with this particular model featuring 24x zoom.
Very sleek and lightweight. Would definitely recommend to friends.
98% of People (58/59) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 10/25/2004 |
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Strengths: Size, Price, Optical Zoom
Weaknesses: none so far
Summary: I had this cam for a couple of days so far, and so far everything looks great. I made some research, and compared this cam to the equivalent sony ones, the major difference that made me go with this cam was the optical zoom, 24X compared to Sony's 10X, plus its price isnt too high, and it has all the features that i wanted. Keep in mind that you will need a firewire kit and Video Editing software to transfer movies to the computer, but I already knew that and it wasnt a problem for me. So I highly recommend this cam.
98% of People (55/56) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/07/2005 |
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Strengths: Lightweight and easy to use.
Excellent zoom and autofocus.
Performs well in interior shoots, even at moderate light levels.
Weaknesses: Image stabilization not quite as good as some others.
Poor digital photo quality
Summary: After going for several years with only a digital camera to record the "important moments of life", we decided it was time to break down and purchase a digital camcorder. We spent weeks researching reviews, news articles, and going to the local electronic stores trying to find the "best" camcorder for our $500 budget. After all this work and a lot of hair-pulling we came to the conclusion that there is no "perfect" camera out there, at least not in our budget. However, the Panasonic PV-GS 15 is pretty darn close.
We seriously considered several other manufacturers and models, primarily Sony, Canon and JVC. We knew we wanted digital for editing capabilities and our budget precluded mini-DVD cameras, so we focused on the mini-DV models. We excluded JVC primarily because of concerns about the durability of the cameras based upon our research. Canon's new cameras (the ZR series) looked really good and were easy to use, but the low-light performance was considered poor and since we plan to do a lot of indoor shooting we were concerned it would be inadequate. Sony's HC-20 and HC-30 were both excellent and were the most comfortable for me to hold, but we decided to pass because the zoom was not as powerful, my wife did not like having to touch the LCD screen to access the menus and the Panasonic was more comfortable for her to hold.
The Panasonic is easy to use, zooms wonderfully and has very good audio. We were very impressed at the quality of pictures indoors with nothing more than a standard overhead light on. The only major drawback is that the digital photos are pretty poor. However, that seems to be pretty common on just about every digital camera (at least in our price range). The image stabilization is also not quite as good as Sony's, but the difference was small enough that it wasn't a deal breaker for us. I would give it five stars except for the poor digital photo quality and the ergonomics are slightly worse than sony's (at least for me, my wife disagrees on that one).
Bottom line.
We plan to primarily use our camera for filming those special occasions (birthdays, holidays, etc) and when out on family trips and vacations. For about $400, we think we couldn't have bought a better camera that will do what we need.
97% of People (28/29) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 09/01/2004 |
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Strengths: 24X optical zoom, sdcard, zoom mic, built in light, it is SO SMALL.
Weaknesses: low resolution snapshots, webcamera limitations
Summary: 2004-09-03 12:08:46 I read a lot of reviews before purchasing this camcorder, and to be honest, I think this is an awesome deal. This panasonic is unbelievably small, the 24X zoom is the best out for this price range, and the battery (3hr) included is a nice plus. It is nice also that the camera comes with a 8mb sdcard. So far, all the features seem self-explanatory and the software installation went smooth.
It is my first time buying a digital camera and I am very satisfied. I did a lot of homework, and this camcorder came out to be the best deal for the money and for the features
And it is nice looking too
Also it is a nice plus that I can use it as a webcam, the only problem is that it is very picky about what software to use and about what software the person you are connecting to needs to use. For example, we cannot use MSN messenger, but windows messenger (both sides)
Besides that, I believe you won't be dissapointed of this buy, it is an excellent deal.
97% of People (28/29) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/28/2004 |
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Strengths: Optical Zoom baby! No minicamcorder in the market that has its
zooming feature. I did some serious research before purchasing this product.Some models from JVC and Sony does not have headphone jack,
Weaknesses: i have yet to discover.
Summary: This gadget sticks out among the other camcorder bec of its zooming capability. I recommend this camc. to everyone who wants to rip the benefit of less than $500 gadget. If you like to take videos on outdoor range, this is for you. Sony and JVC does not have this 24X zooming power.
96% of People (22/23) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/04/2004 |
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Strengths: 24x zoom, SD memory card storage, digital photo and web camera capabilities, very small size, elegance, excellent price/value
Weaknesses: Low-light resolution could use some improvement, otherwise everything is wonderful
Summary: I undertook quite a bit of research before settling on the Panasonic Handycam PV-GS15 Mini DV Digital Camcorder. I was looking for a good price-to-value ratio AND a full range of features, all of which can be found in this camcorder. That said, it was the 24x zoom that nailed it for me. Few camcorders can match the performance of the Handycam PV-GS15.
Interestingly and much to my surprise after I purchased the PV-GS15, I discovered that the Handycam was the evolutionary digital companion to my existing Panasonic PV-D209 VHS-C Palmcorder -- a wonderful analog camcorder in its own right. The feature set is similar to the PV-D209, but the Handyman camcorder is so much smaller and, of course, it's digital! Now it's easy for me to transfer movies to my iBook for editing and burning to DVD.
Read the reviews. Arrive at your own conclusion. But if you were to ask me, I'd say that you won't be disappointed with the PV-GS15!
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| Date Reviewed: 12/28/2004 |
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Strengths: excellent zoom and compact size.
Weaknesses: No night shot.
Summary: Great camera for its price.Compact to hold onto and operate all buttons with one hand,lightweight,and zoom is too good,it zooms even upto a strand of hair.its colour viewfinder,max zoom,size,clarity and image stabilization makes this camcorder outstanding in its price range.
Its gives grainy shots when shot in dark,but still it makes a great camcorder because hardly we shoot in complete dark.
Recommended
89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 11/02/2004 |
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Strengths: It is a very good camcorder.Handy,comfortable to use.
Weaknesses: Still picture is having low resolution
Summary: It has a great zoooming power.The picture mode are easy to shoot.Its light weight which is usefull at outdoor.With the editing software it is worth to shoot with this camcorder.
89% of People (8/9) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 06/02/2004 |
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Strengths: small size, great features
Weaknesses: none so far
Summary: I have done lot of research before buying this camcoder. This is the most admired & value priced in its class. It has got a built-in light and electronic image stabilizer.
Overall I think this is very nice product. I would definitely suggest my friends to go for it. The price is affordable. Very nice design. Light. lot of features and functions. So far so good.
88% of People (53/60) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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| Date Reviewed: 03/18/2005 |
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Strengths: Digital effects mode; side loading tape mechanism; 24x optical zoom; great in day conditions; battery life; good for novice; enough manual controls
Weaknesses: Poor lowlight capabilities; Image stabilization; Menu system and buttons; Can't transfer video to computer
Summary: I bought to take video of my firstborn and overall I am happy with the purchase. This is my first video cam ever, and the video quality is quite good in daylight conditions. Low light perf is poor but then that's how most camcorders with 1 ccd are. The GS-15 was reasonably priced at $410.00.
I looked at Sony HC20 but it was a bit overpriced for its bare-bones features; plus I don't like the lcd touch screen menu system. The GS15 menu system and buttons is no better but at least it's durable. It is a pain that you have to open the LCD screen to get access to the buttons. The menu screen layout is very plain, not like the new ones used in the 2005 Panasonic models. I was very surprised by the array of digital effects you can do with the camcorder; I use the "mix" and "wipe" effect constantly. These effects make amatuer videos a bit more professionally produced. The battery life on this model is great; I believe it can record/play for up to 2 1/2 to 3 hours.
Another great aspect of this model is the optical zoom of 24x; i think only panasonic was the first manufacturer to give you this much zooming capabilities and now other companies are following their lead. However, with the added zoom, you need a tripod because the electronic image stabilization is somewhat weak.
I am a novice and the auto modes are really good. I tried the manual functions but I will not pretend to know what I'm doing because I simply don't. However, there are manual controls for those you want to fiddle with focus and gain.
I would recommend buying this product.
88% of People (7/8) found this review helpful. Was this review helpful or unhelpful for you?
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